Automatic systems which provide information to users have become very common. For years, many systems have allowed users to access information from a telephone and its keypad or from a banking machine and more recently, with the growth of home computers, modems, and the internet, from a computer and its keyboard as well. In many cases, these systems require that the user identify themselves with some passcode or access code.
Typical examples of such systems are: voice messaging systems--which allow a user to retrieve the messages that others have left them--and automated banking or account information systems--which allow a user to retrieve information about their personal accounts and perhaps to make payments from or transfers between those accounts.
NORSTAR VOICE MESSAGING.TM. version 3, MERIDIAN MAIL.TM. and VISIT MESSENGER.TM., all manufactured by Northern Telecom Limited, are voice messaging systems which allow the user to retrieve their messages from either a telephone or a computer connected via network or modem. MERIDIAN IVR.TM., also manufactured by Northern Telecom Limited, is an interactive voice response system which allows third parties to customize systems for information retrieval. In many cases such a system is used to integrate with banking or other systems and build the aforementioned information retrieval systems, allowing a customer of a bank to access information from a telephone, a banking machine, or a computer.
As these systems provide access to confidential information, they require that the user identify and authenticate themselves. The identification is typically an account number, with authentication by way of a confidential passcode. As users may access the system at any time from either the telephone or computer, the passcode must be numeric in nature.
Recognising that many users have difficulty in remembering these numeric passcodes (of which they may have a multiplicity for different services, machines, and environments), the keypads of telephones and banking machines provide standard mappings of letters to numbers. This allows users to make use of a mnemonic aid, that is, to select an easily remembered word which utilises the letters to which the numbers of the passcode map.
The user can then simply "type" their mnemonic word by pressing the corresponding numeric keys. A problem occurs, however, when the user must enter their passcode on a computer. Existing systems require that the user enter the number on their computer. And unfortunately, computer numeric keys do not have the associated alphabetic lettering on them.
This problem is typically solved by users referring to a telephone to determine which numeric key each letter of their mnemonic word maps to, and then entering these numeric keys on their computer. This is awkward for the user, and where no telephone is proximate to the computer, may result in the attempt being abandoned until the user can find a phone and write down the appropriate number. It is also potentially confusing for the user since the layout of the numeric keys on the telephone differs from that on computer keyboards, that is, some computer keyboards have only a row of numbers, and those that have a numeric keypad as well have it in a different layout from that on a telephone.
Where a user resorts to writing down the numeric equivalent of the mnemonic word to prevent future trouble, the security and confidentiality of the passcode, and therefore the information which is protected by the passcode, is reduced.
It should be noted that a similar problem occurs when a user is creating a new passcode while using the computer. Without the ability to conveniently enter a mnemonic word, the user generally resorts to a numeric passcode, which in most cases is written down, again compromising the security and confidentiality of the protected information.